THE International Criminal Court (ICC) got its first black eye yesterday when the Prosecutor dropped all charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. To their own admission, the prosecution simply did not have enough evidence that could hold in court. So, the question that stands; why take all the trouble of fueling a reputation-bashing crusade against a sitting Head of State if there was no evidence? The ICC has long been regarded as a Damocles Sword hanging over weaker nation’s heads, to keep them in line if they went against the interests of the ICC’s sponsors. The very choice of its first indictees speaks volumes. Going after small time warlords and ignoring the authors of mass destructions and human rights abuses in more powerful states exposes its underbelly; an addiction to selective justice. The richer international community could put to better use all the money spent in the pursuit of international justice if it helped strengthen countries’ judicial institutions to find solutions locally. Parading a Head of State in front of the world media to flex the courts muscles goes against the very essence and ethos the ICC claims to stand for, and in the very end, will be its undoing. The Uhuru Kenyatta case should be a wakeup call – to African nations in particular who, it seems, guinea pigs are in an experimental judicial parody – that it is time they owned their own justice. And the sooner they do, the lesser strangers will continue to meddle and dictate the shots.
